POSTGAME: Strong Start & Cold Finish, Phoenix Mercury Can’t Hang with Liberty Late
I wish I was talking about mighty Mercury, but I’m actually talking about mighty ugly. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] What What up? What up? What up? Welcome back to PHX Mercury podcast. I am your host Eric Lee Day. I’m joined by my PG-1 QV1 on and off the court, on and off the field, in and out of the studio, in and out of all the places, Stephen Pian Garner. Stephen, how you doing on this fine Friday evening? I want to just get to one where it burns now, honestly. But doing all right. Doing doing all right. Um was definitely expecting more from this game, especially still from Tuesday’s loss to start the second half of the season. Um, only the second time the team has lost back-to-back games all season long. Does it go to three? That remains to be seen. But isn’t this the third? Cuz then they lose the last game before Allstar. Uh, technically. Yeah. Yeah. So, it’s three in a row. So, first time first time all season where they’ve lost streaking the wrong way. Yeah. So, these are uncharted waters. But again, for a team that’s been tested and challenged in multiple ways this season, I don’t expect for it to last too long. Um, but they definitely have to sharpen up and clean up multiple things before they can get back to the winning space that they were in. So, you’ll see how I feel with our one word burns, but that’s what I am right now. How about you? Uh, you know, I’m not too bad. Almost said it like three times, but I No, we’re gonna get to it quick so that way we can get out. That’s a tough word to like just work into a sentence, too, Stephen. It’s not easy to just work. Not when you not when you are you’re influenced and motivated. I will say that. Uh well, if you’re new here, welcome to the PH Next Merku podcast. If you’re not new here, welcome back to the PH Next podcast. You already know we got our guy Kevin Thomas behind Mac pushing the X’s and O’s for us tonight. Shout out to our guy Kevin. He tried to ditch us, but then he came back uh just begging to come back to produce our pod. He just he needed to produce the Mercury Pod. And unfortunately, he probably wishes it was the other way around cuz that game, the other game ended first. But, you know, they tried to make me talk baseball, guys. I’m not a baseball guy. I just know the next time you go on the Dback show, though, there’s going to be a finish to the the last time you were on the Dback show. So, you know, I will be patiently waiting for that day. I’m honest if I’m honest. But, nonetheless, uh, Kevo, I do think we should just go ahead and rip the band-aid off with the one-word burns. Obviously, Phoenix took the loss to the New York Liberty tonight. It was a close game until halftime and then halftime happened and it just went downhill from there. Yeah. And so I think we should just rip the band-aid off with these one-word burns. Um Stephen, you want to go ahead with your word? Yeah. Uh vexing. I was vexed. All of that. Just very frustrated, confused, annoyed, all of those things kind of wrapped in one. Um, this was a very winnable game for the Mercury, especially when we emphasized setting the tone and what they did in that first quarter about six or seven stops in a row to start the game. 80 to the first time out seemed like they were on one of those kind of moments to start a game where they were taking everything that was that twoame losing streak that we talked about coming into tonight and were on a mission to get back on the right side of the win column and then they kind of lost the discipline. New York started playing better, want to start there. Uh, Phoenix’s discipline slipped and um, we ultimately see the result that we did. A game that had no lead changes and four ties in the first half quickly went south and they were down double digits about late in the third quarter. Yeah. And I chose the word bleak because frankly it was bleak. Uh, it felt hopeful in the first half and then suddenly it was I felt like we were back in the dark days of last season. uh where it was just like uh who is this team that I’m watching play basketball out there? Um and so yeah, it was definitely a a not fun game to watch in the the first half to your credit. I mean they started out hot 80. I was like dang like this team ain’t playing around today. They came out with intention. I mean I saw those videos of them shooting the half court shots in warm-ups today and I was like oh Mercury by a gazillion points man. And then when halftime hit they came out and the Liberty made adjustments and the Mercury made the wrong ones. Yeah. Kevo, what was your word for today’s game? Parlay. Understandable. My guy Kevo. Very understandable. Mad. Kevin, would you like to tell the people why you’re mad? Yeah, cuz I I did our bets for bet365 today. Shout out to Bet365. Use code PHX365. You know, figure $150 in free bonus bets. But, uh, if you did tail my parlay, we we we held the line up until the very last second of this game. We needed Alyssa Thomas to have seven plus rebounds. Smashed that. We needed Alyssa Thomas to have 15 plus points. Obliterated that. And then we needed Sammy Wickcom, two plus made threes, which is something she’s done what, five out of five games recently or something crazy. uh hasn’t gone one for seven in like months up until you know tonight when she went one for seven and uh completely messed up my parlay. But it is okay because Sammy Wickholm is still a good basketball player. So I’m not too mad at Sammy Wickholm, but I am mad that her shots didn’t fall. Yeah, it was definitely a tough sight to see. Honestly, that was was what made toughest is I know Kev I knew Kevin was just so sad about that second made three that just didn’t come and we were we incited so much confidence into him and we let him down a little bit. But well actually now that we’re on the topic in fact see your point though you said when I said she had one made three she was one for three at the time in the first that was in the first quarter. Yeah. Yes. And what did you say? You said there’s entirely too much time left in the game. She’s going to take multiple, which means that she’s going to make at least one more. And for the first time in quite some time regarding Sammy, boy, was I wrong. That was that was that was a tough one. Obviously, you want to credit New Yorker for that. But to Kevin’s point and why his bet made sense. The last what 11 games, Sammy was knocking down 3.4 of 11 or seven and a half attempts a game. So, as far as betting goes, if you’re betting on streaks and you’re betting on players that are kind of playing to a certain level, you’re betting on an all-time great at a specific skill. That felt like a layup, honestly. It really did. So, my apologies to you. Um, I imagine I imagine Sammy will make up for that and then some, if not in the next game, in the not too distant future. It’s all good in my book with Sam Wick. Elite shooter. Someone that didn’t screw over Kevin Parlay. Yes. Alyssa Thomas. Let’s talk about it. Uh, I feel like today was one of the first times all season where I felt like she was getting that proper just uh, just respect from the general population of not just Mercury people, but also I heard that the New York broadcasters were talking her up the entirety of the game, talking about what an MVP candidate she has been all season. And then to watch her do what she did and nearly get a triple double, 20 points, uh, 13 rebounds and nine assists, I believe. Uh, that’s off my dome. Here comes the graphic that Kevin made with two steals. Oh, it was close. only eight assists, but um still right there on that triple double line. So, yeah, she is just continues to be everywhere and do everything for the Phoenix Mercury. And every time the Mercury Mercury were going to get close, it was something it was due to what Alyssa Thomas was able to get done for them on the on the floor. So, uh yeah, definitely just another impressive game from AT. And, you know, definitely not the last. We’re going to continue to see these types of games from her as we continue to get closer to the end of the season. Yeah. uh V12, V14, whatever engine you want to look at that’s stronger than either of those two that are hemi like there’s a lot of options out there that’s pass my car knowledge, but I know that V12s and V14s for cars and and some some bigger trucks are is relevant and the Hemi as well at all of that and then some. um they just needed more from elsewhere outside of her in today’s game because you don’t beat the New York Liberty, especially in New York with just one player. You often don’t even beat them with only two players. At I felt like she brought what she needed to to the table. There was some slippage on defense. Um even on her part, there wasn’t that’s not it’s like very uncharacteristic. So again, not something to worry about. But if we’re speaking specifically to today’s game, everybody had room that they could be better with, including the coaching staff. So, uh, yeah, this was a this was a tough one. Um, they lost it off of execution more than anything else, but doesn’t take away from Alyssa Thomas being a bonafide MVP candidate, which copy paste for each of the last five, six, seven seasons in a row now. Uh, that’s just who she is at this point. And, um, for my money, she’s been the MVP this season so far. Yeah, I feel like this is finally been the time where she’s starting to get the respect she deserves and that’s thankful I guess. Uh I guess we’ve done a good job of spreading the good gospel at this point. But um yeah, I do want to talk about the coaching staff. I know you were sitting in with Nate Tibbitz in it postgame and uh pregame presser and so I I guess I want to hear did he have a did he talk about the game plan before the game and did they execute properly and then what what was kind of said in the postgame? Um well I’ll just go with postgame in particular. um he spoke to lack of execution because they started off the game the way that they did and then you get to the latter the latter end of Q2 just before halftime and the Mercury go or excuse me the Liberty go a double digit run that gets the game back to even at 46 and at that point that’s where they take that momentum from that latter end of the second quarter and then they just find ways to bridge the gap going through the second half and the game that the Mercury, like I said, set the tone in ways in which we said they needed to after their most recent loss on Wednesday. They lost that momentum and then they had to play catchup after that. And when you’re trying to play catchup against this Liberty team, no different than when you’re trying to play catchup against the Mercury themselves. It’s often hard and you apply that also to them being at home. Sabrina Nesco doing everything that she was both off the dribble and from deep. That’s tough. Well, and the Mercury were able to put up 27 points in that first quarter, but then after that, every single quarter, they were not able to finish with 20 points, which we talked about this at length last year because it was a consistent issue, but it really hasn’t been a problem for the Mercury so far this year. They’ve definitely given up more or like a consistent amount of 20 plus point quarters, but they have consistently outscored their opponents. So, it’s not been a huge, you know, issue that they have given up as many points as they have, but tonight they were just not able to, especially in the second half, they were not able to get points in the way they normally would. And like kind to our previous points about Sammy and then honestly Kit Su, we’ll get to in a few minutes, but uh you know, the normal help that Alyssa Thomas has had was just not there tonight. And so, it was one of the only games so far this season where the depth problem that people talked about at the beginning of the season felt like a real issue. I don’t think it’s a, you know, I don’t think this is going to be a issue we’re talking about in 3 weeks, a month come September. But it did feel like an issue today, which stinks considering this was the first game all season with the whole team actually injuryfree. Yeah. Well, we almost got there. Well, but at least it’s just an illness. It’s not, you know, but she wasn’t available. Yeah. And that’s true. And I mean, needless to say, if you’ve been rocking with us, you know how important Katherine West belt is, whether you’re a box score watcher, a game watcher, or both. Um, she’s been a starting five. Um, and honestly, in a a moment where she wasn’t expected to be, but the fact that she played so well by the time Natasha Mack came back, they didn’t want to change anything that was already working so well that helped them be one of the three best teams in the league so far all season long. Um, obviously she gets to start and then we get the tip off and then she’s not there. Um, we get a message from um from Mercury PR just letting us know that it was just illness. So, we didn’t get an official update just because they felt like at any point she could come back. Obviously, she didn’t. So, uh, we hope she’s okay, but she was out because of illness, no injury or anything like that that was sustained in um, like pregame warm-ups or anything like that. So, I imagine Cat Westbelt is back for Sunday’s game, but I don’t want to preemptively speak too soon. I’m not sure what illness it is, but she missed today’s game because of that. So, um, not having her definitely shifts things for them because now you have to, um, especially against this Liberty team, you need more more versatile pieces in your front court because of the front court pieces that they have. They pretty much only run bring out Ariana Stewart and JC Jones at the five. So, you know, you don’t want to be at an athleticism disadvantage trying to upsize because that puts you in compromises the defense. Uh, so not having Cat West belt to pivot to definitely hurt them some. And I think that second quarter stretch where they gave up seven offensive rebounds to the New York Liberty and it felt like they scored on six or all seven of those. Yeah, that’s a hard that’s a tough pill to swallow when you play. did so well in the first quarter and really didn’t give up any of those. They go and get seven, go on a double digit run and that’s how they bridge that gap to get back to even at halftime and then they pretty much rode that momentum throughout the rest of the game. And I want to get into the by the numbers here in just a second, but I want to ask you cuz I I want to say this is Colani’s first DMP of the season, which to me it was I felt like at some point they could have used her maybe specifically in that second quarter to hopefully try to prohibit some of those offensive rebounds. Obviously, you can’t go back in time and change those decisions, but um any thoughts on that in particular? Well, Nate talked about that in postgame and he said more than anything, it was them trying to go with a little bit more skill, a little bit more versatility because of the demands that New York puts on the defense in the front court in particular. And uh to your point, this was Kehlani’s first DMP of the season. So, uh understandable considering the matchup. Yeah. But obviously if you look at it after the game happened and you see one of the biggest issues was second chance points and second chance rebound or offensive rebounds conceded. That’s obviously something that Kehani helps to put a stop gap on but also helps you with in turn on your end of the floor. So there’s give and take there. Um I’m not mad at the decision to not have Kehlani play only because you understand how you have to defend New York. Oh for sure. And it’s it’s tough if you if you have to if you can’t get to certain spots. But I understand the other side of it tonight because in the second half they were slow with all of the rotations they made defensively. So you know it was like matter either way, right? Yeah. Yeah. As some people say, damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Especially if Sabrina’s playing that well. It’s like and then John Quil’s knocking down shots like that too. It’s tough. So this is what the New York Liberty do to you. You can talk yourself into tongue twisters and just got to roll a dice at some point and just kind of rock with what you feel like is is best for your team. It’s never a good choice and there’s not going to be a better choice going forward because they didn’t have Emma or Nara in today’s game. So, we were talking about this on the DLS Wings pod. You know, remember what last year the league was investigating Las Vegas aces? I’m going to need an investigation to crack down here shortly because Yeah. Excuse me. Yeah. Well, people were lined up. They already had the drafts ready to say the same thing about the Mercury if they were able to get their hands on Emma Misman. So, whoever got hurt feel differently about that, but come on now. Of course, we would, but everybody else will be like, “Okay, how is this happening? How is the money working?” Yeah, people were ready and they just I can connect the dots. You know what I’m saying? They just shifted the they shifted the aim from the Mercury to to the Liberty. That was a sweep stakes. I do feel like we we missed out on I don’t appreciate that. And uh honestly, Nate said the same thing. He said as much uh he sounded real about it, too. Yeah, he said as much in pregame um mentioning that they were they were one of the three teams that were in on the final sweep stakes for her and ultimately lost out on her. Um and needless to say, her talent speaks for itself. But that wasn’t even available for them today. Neither was the other center that they play outside of John Quill and Brianna Stewart and Nara Sabu. Yep. I imagine if if Niara was available, they probably pressed the Keelani Brown button just to for matchup purposes, but once you see that Nara’s not available and she was deemed out yesterday, so they knew coming in rotation wise, you see the limbo, it’s a lot of give and take and a lot of trying to just figure out what works best. So, and then I do want to talk about one other thing before we get to the B numbers. Kit Locka. I’ve seen a lot of people talk about it on the timeline and then I actually saw you answer a question about it during the game today and so I want to give you a chance to talk about it in front of our beloved viewers as well. Uh Kit has definitely not played to her best. I would say through the last like five to seven games. Uh I don’t I can’t say that I’m exact with those numbers, but that’s what it the eye test tells me. Um, and I know you addressed kind of the rotation piece of it on the timeline, but considering Dana Bonner has been added to the team. It does already put kind of a strain on the minutes rotation that existed before her arrival, but now with Kit playing, you know, how do you see the rotation kind of shaking out? Do you think it still remains situational? And I know Nate kind of addressed it in the post game, but I feel like it’s also he he knows he’s, you know, the head coach. He needs to play it politically correct for his players to a certain level, I guess. So, but what do you what do you think? Um, just double checking right now. Um, last what? One, two, three, four, five. Last seven games. I think Kit is two, four, five, six. About six for 28 from deep. So, um, that’s not gonna get it done for for a Mercury team that, and I want to make sure we speak on this part, too, because I feel like there’s a misconception about Phoenix being uh um live by the three, die by the three team. This is a team that beat the Minnesota Links by making and they made one three-pointer. And they also had one of their lower three-point volume games. So, this is not a team that wins by making and missing threes. You can say tonight’s game. So, not solely, but partly was because they weren’t able to hit the shots that they were able to generate. That’s a conversation to be had. But it’s not a team that’s made and broken by threes. This is a team that’s made and broken by their defense. When their defense is on, including on the defensive end is the periods you put on the sentence grabbing rebounds. You do that, this game looks different. They lost their they lost their edge in the halfway point of the second quarter and throughout the rest of the game because of the slippage on defense which led to New York’s defense being set and then their offense having to consistently go against that. So there’s a process there and when they lose the process battle on that that’s when you kind of get these mixed bag results or these results that lead to double digit losses like we saw tonight. Yeah. And I want to answer Kay and Bradley. I’m sorry if I said your name wrong. Uh I want to answer your comment. We don’t play Khan and Mcconey enough. They’re not going to gain chemistry and beat good teams or shake off the rust by trying to be smart with minutes. And I wish I could say you were correct, but unfortunately, we actually just talked about this on Wednesday. They play eight games in 16 days. Like there’s a lot of games to be played within the next three weeks. And so when you look at it contextually, sure you do want your best players on the floor as much as possible. And Ka is one of our, you know, the best five on the Phoenix Mercury. And Monique McConey has proven to be an elite defender and a great shot maker at when you need her the most. But that said, you know, she’s coming out of this concussion cause coming off of an injury that has existed since last Olympics. I mean, we’re talking about a year-long lingering issue. I personally don’t want them to play Kalia maximum amount of minutes if that means they win tonight. and but she’s hurt again in another week. I’m all set. Miss me with a thunder stick victory today. Like I don’t need to use my thunder sticks if that means Kalia Copper is injured again. So I I see what you’re saying. I I respect the game game chemistry part. I do definitely hear you. But I think the minutes they’re playing on the floor are meaningful enough to where they’re definitely, you know, mattering and they’re building up brain, you know, chemistry with each other in particular as well as everybody else on the floor. And when you have Cat West belt back, it’s not going to matter as much. And so I I just think, yeah, for sure, again, you want your best five on the floor as much as possible, but the bench has proven to be really great for Phoenix. And so, you know, obviously tonight wasn’t their night in particular, but I mean, they still beat out the Liberty in terms of bench points. Last time I looked it was 18 to11, and I I that could have changed uh from till the end of the game, but 18-11. Yeah. So, I mean, the bench still outscored the Liberties. I’m still not pressed about who the Mercury have signed at their roster. Uh I I definitely just I hear what you’re saying about them not playing enough minutes together at this point. I just I think there’s a rebuttal and context here that matters quite a bit. Uh I just want to stat correct myself uh for full transparency. Uh three for 25 over the last seven games for Kit Locka. So I think I said three or four for 28. So I was a little six. Yeah. Okay. So three for 20. Three for 25. So, um, yeah, she has to be has to be better taking and making the shots that they are generating. Back to the topic though, this is a little bit of why it’s good. It’s always great to win games, but when you have so many injuries, you start to get into a little bit of a rhythm with the faction of the team that is available. And then when you have to reintegrate not just one key piece like Kai, but Satu missed multiple games going into All-Star break as well. So you’re reintegrating two key pieces plus still trying to integrate DB for the first time, you know. So yes, so Dana comes into the team, it’s a different context cuz no Satu, no Kalia. Her usage is different, the matchups are different, the lineups are different. The entire floor of the game in terms of plays being ran and whatnot. Everything’s just different. There is another factory reset that takes place now because they get out of Allstar break and guess who’s not available for them? their point guard Monika Co Makani. So now you get her back in addition to everybody else coming back. So you see what I’m getting at? This is not making excuses. It’s just explaining why some things might not necessarily be as sharp as they typically are. Lineups are not necessarily what they usually are. They’re trying to collect uh collect data in terms of what certain lineups look like against certain teams, especially a team like New York. It’s just a lot of learning going on and they had their chances to win this game. Like I don’t want the I don’t want to bury the lead. This is an opportunity that they just lost a grip on over the course of the game. You want to credit New York for that, but there’s a lot of learning going on with this uh Mercury team that teams like New York that won a championship with their core together last season and added a couple new pieces on the margins um just don’t have the same type of issue. Yeah. Um you want to do the buy the numbers or Satu before we get to the ad break, Stephen? Uh we can do Satu. Okay, let’s talk about it. Satu Sabi who through the first 20 games of the season was definitely one of the Mercury’s most important players when she was firing everything worked for the Mercury. She was arguably one of the most important spacing pieces. Obviously at is a you know the engine and makes everything go round but Satu hitting her shots made AT’s job a gazillion and a half times easier. So uh Satu had one of her toughest games of the season tonight. So Kevin, if you want to bring up that graphic for us. Um she was three for 13 from the field, three assists, five rebounds, 0 for six from three with a total of six points at the end of the game. Um definitely hate to see it against a team like the Liberty uh to you know your previous points. Like you’re not going to beat a team as good as the Liberty, especially with JJ Bak and uh everything else that they have going on in New York with, you know, one of your three best players scoring six points. It just it makes beating that team a lot harder. And then in tandem with, you know, Sammy struggling and Kit struggling from three, you know, it makes the spacing piece of it extremely extremely difficult. And so then, you know, they’re able to run Sammy off the line a lot easier. They’re able to run Satu off the line a lot easier. Uh just because they know that she’s not making her shots anyway, so she’s kind of fearful of taking them in the first place. So confidence is definitely like a big piece of this. Um but uh what do you what was your take on Satu Sabi tonight? So Wednesday 13 points on 10 shots from the field uh for Satu. She was three for seven from three. Uh low number in rebounds and low number in free throw attempts. And I mentioned the rebounds and the free throw attempts part with Satu because she’s been elite at both of those particular points for this Mercury team when this Mercury team has been at their best. So, I think no different than for role players for each of their big three and more so Alyssa and uh Satu because they’ve been more available than Kalia so far this season. But there’s specific things that AT and Satu when the team is at their best. Both of those players are really, really good at for shocker. It’s literally everything. Offense, defense, rebounds, points, assists, steals, all like literally everything. And that’s to her typical nature. That’s what she does for Satu. Specific to her role as a big three piece for this Mercury team, it’s been the rebounds. She’s been arguably the best rebounder on the team comprehensively this season. Very consistent there, chipping in on the defensive glass in particular, getting into those grab and go scenarios. Um, and then the other big thing, like I mentioned also, is getting to the free throw line. I can’t say I remember too many postups for Satu Sabi in this one. And as I check my notes, just to double double check, um, New York started this game with uh, Bana Stewart on Satu. So, some of it might be because of that matchup, but there was also a lot of Natasha Cloud guarding Satu Sabi, whether it been whether it was outright or after a switch took place. This is what I’m kind of getting to her role shifting just a little bit in terms of the rhythm. If you want to try to get more touches for Kalia, Satu is not getting the same volume of touches that she was early in the season when she was top seven, top eight in the MVP race, one of the best players in the W. All of this stuff is kind of shifting around. Her rhythm is not going to be the same because of that. So, she has to find a new way to kind of get involved in the game. Yeah, it’s just a lot of, like I said, learning, a lot of unlearning and relearning with the team going on right now. But, never a bad thing to get your team back healthy. I think these are just kind of the relearning steps for them. Obviously, it doesn’t help schedule-wise when you’re going up against two of the three best teams in the league out the break and or two of the four best teams in Atlanta and then New York on the road. Um, but generally speaking, Satu has to be better. I think she understands that. She knows that there’s certainly grace to be given coming back from an injury that lasted multiple weeks. So, there’s that part of the context as well. Uh, but she understands that she has to play to a certain level for the team to be its best self. And I think it starts before anything else with what are her free throw numbers look like in terms of her aggression and also her aggression on the boards with rebounds. Well, and then also, and I was going to talk about this earlier, but last I checked, so I could still be wrong about this, but it was 22-8 free throws. Uh, Liberty New York or Liberty Phoenix 2213 to finish the game. Disgusting in terms of attempts. And I’m I’m sorry, but that’s egregious. That’s that’s relevant. It’s relevant. And I I would gander that most of them Yeah, I was going to say I would bet six of those 13 are at and look who it is. Six of the 13 are Alyssa Thomas, which honestly she probably should have all 13 of them if I’m entirely honest with you. Um but nonetheless, you know, I didn’t think it was a super incredible whistle to start the game. I think they tried to even it out in the fourth quarter as they normally do again versus the Phoenix Mercury. That’s my squad as always. But my god, man, the fouling is just painful to watch. They shot 10 free throws in the first quarter. The Mercury. No, New York. I was like, what? New York shot 10 free throws in the first quarter. Well, right. I was walking down to get my food. And I I was like, they’re going to get back in this game cuz by the time I walked back in the door, it was 8 nothing. And I’m like, they’re going to start going to the free throw line because they need to get back in the game and here we go. And then as soon as I walk in the door, whistle, whistle, whistle, whistle, whistle. I’m like, what in the world? Now, I I will I will say the Mercury can certainly be better with defending without fouling. We talked about it earlier this season, and they have not definitely they I don’t think they’ve gotten very much better about it. Now, there’s a there’s a I give them I give them a slight um some some slight grace with the fouls because there’s a learning curve that comes on a game-to-ame basis, how refs are refereeing the game. And needless to say, officiating has not been consistent across the entire W for 10 years, 15 years, however long. Uh, I’ve been watching W basketball, but there it gets to a point where after the first quarter, quarter and a half, you should start to have an understanding of how referees are officiating the game. So, accountabilitywise, you have to transition from why are y’all calling this to, okay, now I’ve seen you call this multiple times. Now I have to adjust because you don’t want to be leaving things in limbo to allow for officials to dictate or determine how a game is going to flow. You want to make sure you steal back that control as a player and as a team. It didn’t feel like they did it comprehensively after that first quarter. They didn’t foul to the tune of 10 free throws for New York in one singular quarter the rest of the way. But you got to be better in timely moments with that by learning as you go on the game. Well, we’re gonna get to Home’s comment and then the buy the numbers after this quick ad break here on the PH Next Mercury podcast. Did you guys know it’s still double points over at the Mountain America Credit Union? Did you know that? You can see I did not know that. But that’s a good That’s good news. Yeah, double the rewards, man. It is It’s the best news I got all day, especially considering the Mercury lost, you know. So, Mountain America Credit Union is committed to helping their more than 1 million members at their 100 branches throughout the West. You can get two times the points on rewards credit card purchases throughout July 31st. That’s literally in 6 days. So, you don’t have much time, but you can still get in on this. Use your Mountain America credit or Mountain America rewards card and watch points pile up. It’s perfect for gas, groceries, travel, home projects, Orange Tree, I’m looking at you, and all your other purchases. This promotion is an easy way to stretch your dollar since you earn twice as many rewards. Redeem your double points for rewards like travel rebates, gift cards, or event tickets. This is a limited time offer. Like I said, you only got six more freaking days. Uh, so you got to take advantage of it while you still can. Details at macu.com/double. Loans on approved credit offer can change or be withdrawn at any time. Limited time offer. Terms and conditions apply. Stephen, did you get in on this 40 cent gas day on Thursday? I should have because my gas light just came on as I pulled up to the office today. Oh my gosh, that’s terrible. I missed out on it. Me too, Stephen. Me too. I’m gonna have to add y’all to my Circle K group te text because I mean every time I see that it’s fuel day I sent probably send us 60 text messages. I blame Max though. Honestly, if I’m being if I’m really keeping it a bug, I blame Max. He should be telling us. It should have been no different than we have a schedule with all of the shows. We should also have something Circle K related that lets us know, hey, even if you don’t need gas, go get gas, too. A circle calendar. Yeah. Yeah, we need we need one of those for sure. All right. I think I’m going to yell at Max to get on that. I blame Max. Max blames us all the time. I blame him here. Mr. Simpson, if you’re watching, get get on that calendar movement. But, uh, you can join the inner circle just like us. You can get 25 cents off your first five fill-ups. You don’t even have to be on the fuel day nonsense like us. We’re on the fuel day nonsense. I’m on the fuel fuel day train. Like, if I hear there’s a fuel day, I’m spreading the word like hot fire. Okay. Um, but so I’ll spread the word to you guys, too, when it happens. Don’t you worry. But until then, you can get 25 cents off your first five fill-ups, 3 cents off every gallon after that, and then you work your way up into the 5-cent off club like myself. I know Steven’s in it. Kevin just got in it in like February cuz he’s slow to the game, but it’s okay. We forgive him for being a little slow. It’s okay. It’s almost August. Better late than never. February now since like last year. Yeah, February. I had to work up to it. February is a little bit ago now. I’ve been in the class for a little bit. You know what I’m saying? I got in that class real quick. I buy a lot of gas, though, so I guess that’s that’s my fault. But you can join the inner circle just like us for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit circlek.com for details by the numbers presented to you by Desert Financial Credit Union and also Stephen Pig and Garner because he’s way better at math than I am and I know he’s ready for this nonsense just like I was. But uh Stephen, you want to walk us through this by the numbers? Yeah. um 40% from the field. Start there. That’s not going to be good enough on most nights against this New York Liberty team. Um you want to take the shots that you generate. You don’t want to do too much and just, you know, take the ones that you are able to create because their defense is good. But you you have a certain level of shot making on your team that you want to be able to come into any game knowing that we’re going to have at least this amount of efficiency on the shots that we do create. They weren’t able to hit that mark tonight generally from the field or from the three-point line in particular. If you go to the bottom of the screen and you see that they shot 23.3%. And um in terms of volume, they did get up almost as many attempts as New York. So it wasn’t like they were outshot in terms of volume, but they just didn’t knock down as many. Uh New York knocked down 10 of theirs in tonight’s game, shooting 32%. But just in all um a game where if you’re not for Phoenix, if you’re not efficient with your shooting, if you’re not efficient with your rebounding, if you’re not efficient taking care of the ball, and you’re also being outshot from the free throw line, like your avenues, like the margin for error against the New York Liberty is already slim coming into the game, whether they’re healthy or they’re close to healthy. You can’t have any of those not go in your favor and still expect to win, especially on the road against them. That’s tough. Uh, we got to take a second about for this home’s comment. I I I actually forgot because I promised you we would come back to you after the the break, but and now here we are and I did not come back to you and that’s my bad. We got to start with this. One of the only good things about the game was that the New York announcer this time around, they put some announcer they put some respect on at most respect that has been put on at all season and it wasn’t even a homer like myself hyping her up. I feel like that that’s a good sign though, right? About time. You’re right. I guess I shouldn’t be I shouldn’t be that excited because you’re right. Two and a half months into the season. Like it’s about time. Like I’m glad y’all finally are acknowledging that there are players outside of the New York market that are playing great basketball this season. Like about time. They don’t get cookies for doing your job. You finally did it. Like I’m glad you got around to it, but you’re a little late now. Like it took it took it took two losses to the Phoenix Mercury for you to start acknowledging that Alyssa Thomas is who she is. That’s no worse than a top three player and one of the best first halves of the season. Like what we doing right now? She was coming off of going going into Allstar break a player of the week. Like about time you don’t get cookies for doing it late. At least you could buy her jersey at the All-Star game, right? I got some bad news for you, brother. Wow. Terrible news for you, actually. Don’t worry. I ranted for like 10 minutes on the Wings podcast about that about AT. So, you know, I’m spreading the gospel there, too. You know what I mean? That’s silly. No way should people just now be coming around to Alyssa being in the MVP conversation. The other comment from homes I want to talk about Mac at Ka and Mo were the best two players on the floor tonight and they were on the bench together at the same time. How does that happen and why? Um, Stephen, uh, the Mercury got a lot of good players. We start there. um players obviously have to rest. Um you also have a big three construct. So if all four of those players aren’t on the court, that means that Sammy Wickham, Kalia Copper, and Satu Sabi are on the court and some rendition of five players, that’s not a bad lineup regardless of whoever else is on the court. If those three are on the floor and you add to that Dana Bonner is likely on the floor with that group, too. I like it a lot. Yeah. So they have a lot of lineup combinations that they’re working through. They’re, like I said, collecting data, figuring out what lineups work against what type of teams, trying to get those lineups to build chemistry with one another now that they’re close to healthy. Um, these are the es and flows that kind of come with when you have a lot of talent. That comes with a lot of learning that has to take place to get the most out of all of that talent comprehensively and not just 75% of that. Because in this in this WNBA with Emma Misman coming to New York and Minnesota being who they are, um Vegas still creeping around, they’re never a team to to sleep on. You got to be on your P’s and Q’s. You need to get 100% of your talent. 75% is not going to get it done. So, this is the learning part that I got done speaking to earlier. Yeah. And you know, to his point, like these same players were fantastic and part of the reason that the Mercury were able to beat the Liberty the first two times. So, I don’t know. I don’t know about you guys, but I’ll take two and one versus the New York Liberty all day long. Uh, at this point in the season, if I’m honest with you guys, I saw a lot of people on Twitter today talking during this game about how disappointed they were with this Mercury loss. And I I do understand being disappointed in this loss, but at the same time, the Mercury literally could not stay above 500 last season. Not one time were we o on this show talking about how they’re gonna make a fantastic playoff run because they’re just they’re primed and ready for it. No, if I recall, Stephen had the Minnesota Links picked to sweep the New York or the the Phoenix Mercury last year in the first round of the playoffs. I think if I’m correct. And so, you know, I got I got I got um scolded by many Mercury fans. Understandably so. I scolded him. Understandably so. Understandably so. I like winning and still I was still like h you know this is tough. Uh but you know this is a team that you can count on is in every game that they’re playing. They’re not going to show up to Connecticut and score 42 points like we saw Phoenix do last season. I don’t know. I just don’t see the rainy day attitude that everybody I I just I don’t understand the rainy day attitude that everybody has right now because this team is what 15 and nine uh still not to 10 losses and they’re almost 30 games in the season. So, I’m not crying, Wolf. I’m crying still thinking. Literally today, Stephen and I were talking about hosting the playoffs. Stephen and I cannot be having that conversation if this Phoenix Mercury team is not playing as well as they have been playing. Yep. Well, I also wanted to add I know with the numbers we were talking about, um I think we had we had points, turnovers, free throws. You can go ahead. You can throw it back up there. I was trying to remember. Yeah, we had field goal percentage, rebounds, turnovers, and uh the three-pointers. I want to look specifically at We talked about the free throw discrepancy already, but specifically the the offensive rebounds that they conceded. So, they gave up, was it eight offensive rebounds. New York got 21 points from second chance opportunities today. 21. So you look at the the difference in the game in terms of the final score. 2 point 2 2.6 points per possession that they got an offensive rebound. That’s you’re not going to win many games if you’re giving up that many offensive rebounds. And they’re in turn also scoring on so many of those. That’s a a near impossible mountain to climb, especially if you’re talking about going up against a New York Liberty team that has Sabrina playing at an MVP level like she was tonight. Well, the other thing I want to point out here is that we just finished talking about how this is the first time the Mercury have been on a three-game losing streak all season. The New York Liberty went on a three-game losing streak before the All-Star break. Like, I mean, let’s be honest here for a second. The New York Liberty was not playing the most beautiful, glorious basketball right before the All-Star break. So, they had some corrections to make. They made them. And now look at them. They’re, you know, I’m not going to say slobber knockering like I would in a normal situation, but they, you know, definitely wiped the floor a little bit with the Mercury today. So, I don’t think it’s any reason to quite c cry wolf. I think if anything, Kalia Copper starting the game four for five made me feel extremely optimistic. Obviously, her percentage dropped quite a bit after that. But on the same token, I talked to you literally on Wednesday about her early game touches and she scored the first I want to say six points for the Phoenix Mercury and then after that again did not miss until her fifth shot. And so I think, you know, the recipe for success is right there. It’s right on the cusp of things for them. And as Kalia continues to come back from injury and just gets more and more comfortable and gets in her rhythm, like we’ve talked about her being a rhythm player, this team is going to become unstoppable in no time. Yeah, we like I just got done speaking to Satu. Um the rhythm of the game is going to be different because the team is closer to healthy than they have been all season long. in addition to having someone new like Dana Bonner that’s added to the mix too. Um we talked about in the first quarter we couldn’t remember when it was that Kai took her first shot but it didn’t feel like she took much of any in the first quarter of that game. It didn’t feel like she really had a rhythm going in terms of plays being called for her where she’s getting the ball with intention. Uh fast forward to today’s game and look who’s getting the first handful of shots listen to the show. I couldn’t believe that was a conversation that was had while they were on the plane flying out to New York watching film like, “Yeah, we can’t be going a near full quarter without having a play call for Kalia Copper.” Especially when she’s on a minutes restriction. Especially when she’s on a minute restriction. Correct. So, you got to start her off in the first quarter. I I wouldn’t mind so much if it was the first three minutes of the second quarter and she didn’t touch the ball, but first three minutes of the third first quarter, I’m like, “Brother, Nate Tibbitz, don’t make me do it to you, brother.” Yeah. And especially when you when you factor in all the switching and all of the things that uh New York was doing in this game, which I haven’t gotten the final numbers from today’s game, but from the first game against New York to that second game in June where Sammy went crazy, they switched significantly more of the actions that Phoenix was running. And you look at today’s game and it felt like they took what they did in that second game and they put like a times two multiplier to that. So, I’m curious to see the numbers once those do come out. I’ll let y’all know whenever I get them. But they switched a lot more in today’s game. And if teams are switching, that’s taking away the movement and things like that that make Sammy the effective player that she is, whether scoring or passing. That’s why you need somebody that can just go, I don’t need help, just space for me and I’ll go be my matchup one-on-one. And to that point, we saw Kalia doing that in the first quarter. I think we should do it different by the numbers on Monday for this game. I know you’re going to pull some incredible statistics from this game, but the screening numbers got to look wild in this game, like comparatively to other games. as far as volume. Yeah. I don’t know. Something about it. Like again, I think I think I think Wednesday’s game was probably less than today’s game, but I I’ll definitely I’ll definitely let you know when I do see them because it was a lot more standing around and watching like we spoke to on Wednesday’s game. It felt like they had more movement today. They just weren’t able to get as many paint touches, which I should have asked about the um the keys to the game, but one of the three keys to the game was paint touches. The only way you’re going to be the New York Liberty team, you have to shoot to the same level of them from deep, if not more. But you have to have a good process into that. And that starts with being able to get paint touches. And that’s why I feel like, like I mentioned at the end of Wednesday’s episode, I felt like Kalia Copper was in for a really good game because she’s a player that they might get her in movement to get touches, but she doesn’t need help to get open. She can just go create for herself one-on-one. Whether it’s a switch or her original matchup, it just doesn’t matter. And we saw that a little bit today. Uh it was a little bit of creativity with them. Uh one I think one of the threes she made she was kind of getting into a little bit of handoff scenarios. U they switched it and she found a little pocket to pull up against the switch. Um she got another three-pointer that she made also. I think she got a flare screen and um I forgot who it was that passed it to her but they got a timely pass. Alyssa set the screen for her and she knocked down that three and then the other one came off of her just kind of creating for herself getting to the paint. That’s the blend that you want from Kalia. But you have to find ways, like I said, because the team is healthy now to to get that pocket, but also not take the rhythm away from Satu, keeps at involved, keep the general Florida game involved. So, it’s it just gets tough with where they’re at right now because they have so much talent. Well, and I just saw Kevin pull your keys, so I guess we should talk about that for just a quick second. Yep. Uh, key one, set the tone with the defense. I think that gets an extraordinary check mark because they did that and they did that extremely well. Uh, it’s after the first quarter. I guess I should because they did because they did that part well. Maybe I should have put the second key to sustaining after you after you set the tone with your defense because they didn’t do that part too well. But they did the first key very well. They set the tone with their defense. Um, New York didn’t score through the first like five minutes of the first quarter. They got like I think the Mercury got six or seven stops on the road to start the game. Um, number two is diversifying the usage of Alyssa Thomas. Um, that part I felt like they were only okay with. I felt like they could have got more out of the things that we talked about in the the film session you did on her and Sammy and having at screening and getting into different variations of handoffs where Alyssa doesn’t necessarily have the ball in her hands immediately. I feel like that creates a little bit more advantage. That’s how they beat New York in that second game in particular, just kind of diversifying AT’s usage outside of her just having the ball right away. And then uh the third key of the game was paint touches and that’s the one where like you’re speaking to they didn’t have the same type of movement that we’re accustomed to watching them watching them have. I feel like it was better than what it was against Atlanta but it wasn’t good enough to win against either of those two teams. So room for improvement for sure. Well I already said I’m not crying wolf. Are you crying wolf at this point in the season? No. I mean this game you don’t even think that there are must-win games right now. for no there better not be must win games for a team that a handful of people that that are paid to watch these games and know what’s going on around the league picking them to not be in the playoffs or barely be scrunching into the playoffs by the end of the season. So Kevin by that Yeah, correct. So a team that a team that’s in what are they they either in third or fourth place right now based on record they’re still third I’m pretty sure they’re still third. So a team that’s no worse than top four that was predicted by a lot of people to not even make the playoff. I’m not trying to hear that. I’m not trying to hear the gripes and whatnot about wins and losses right now. This team, if they weren’t allowed to learn about themselves early in the season because of the lack of expectations that people put on them, they definitely earned the right to learn about themselves at this point in the season. Storm’s only half a game behind, but it’s okay. It’s okay. I believe I don’t think a storm is brewing too much right now, but I don’t want to speak too soon. We’ll revisit that. It looks like it is storming on the storm right now. Yeah, it’s a storm on the storm right now. But Seattle is raining and crying. Yeah, but we’ll revisit that when um when the time comes. We got enough to focus on with the Mercury right now for sure. For real. But um with this loss tonight, uh Mercury moved to they stay in third place. Like I said, 15 and N. I’m not crying wolf. Um and there is no reason to really do so. Um what are you looking for for them to do on Sunday? Obviously, it’s the Mystics. You’re looking at a completely different type of opponent in the Mystics. Uh, and basically a ton of rookies and Britney Sykes out there running the show. All stars. Yeah, as they should. As they should. All three of them. Uh, and uh, they got what they deserved, period. And their jerseys were for sale, so they even more so got what they deserve. Um, but what are you looking to change from this game to Sunday’s game for the Mercury to come out with victory? Rebounds, rebounds, rebounds, rebounds, rebounds. Um, they were minus4 on the rebounding margin against Atlanta. In tonight’s game with the New York Liberty, they were, let me double check, I think it was minus5. Uh, yeah, minus five on the boards in today’s game. This is a team that has to at least be neutral with their opponents because if their opponents are getting up uh if not more shots on goal, if you combine the shots on goal with the free throws in tonight’s game, because they got up they got up eight more attempts from the field than New York. But when you add New York’s 22 free throw attempts to the general shots on goal and you take the 13 that the Mercury had with their 77, they got outshot from generally from the floor if you add the free throw. So they can’t be conceding more shots on goal to their opponents. By that same measure though, um they did force 16 turnovers, but it felt like a lot of the turnovers that they forced came in that first quarter and um that kind of halfway through the second quarter stretch as I’m double checking that. Um, New York had two turnovers in the first quarter, four in the second. So, okay. So, they had a lot in the third quarter in particular. They had five. It didn’t feel like their defense had the sustained impact that it usually does. So, rebounds, but rebounds naturally come in tandem with the defense because the defense has to hit a certain level. So, before anything else, if they’re playing off of stops like they usually do to the extent that they usually do, I think the offense will kind of come back a little quicker. Yeah. And you know, I think something that definitely made me optimistic about this game going into any games in the future is that the first quarter lol wasn’t really the reason behind today’s loss. I felt like if if the Mercury started out a little better on Wednesday versus the Dream, they’re winning that game. That was not the problem tonight. And I was kind of obsessed with that not being the problem because it feels like the other eight games that the Mercury have lost this season have all been because of a slow first order first quarter start. So, I think if they can consistently start the way they started today, then the Mercury has a recipe for winning right on the tip of their fingers. I would say so, too. Um, they do have to clean up the um they got to clean up some of the timely turnovers. They only had 14 today. 14 is on the high side for them if we’re looking at it on the entire season. I think this was their ninth or eighth game with 14 or more turnovers. So, um, not many. And I think in those games, I think they’re now five and four if I remember correctly when I was looking at it before we went live. But, um, you don’t want to be having too many and conceding that in addition to the fouls, in addition to the offensive rebounds, like these are compounding things on the margins that it just makes it hard to navigate a game with, especially if you’re not knocking down your threes to the extent that you typically you typically do, which coming into today’s game, they were second in three-point make, second in three-point attempts, and fourth in uh three-point percentage. Um, so you want to be better with your game process generally speaking. Um, they found good pockets in this game, but you want to sustain it more than they did in tonight’s game in ways in which they did prior to the All-Star break. Yeah. And I I think all the pieces are right there. You know, with Lexi’s return, obviously, she is coming back from a crazy injury and she was in the place that it happened in. So, I definitely have a lot of empathy for Lexi today. Uh, and so I don’t even want to talk about really her play too much because it at the end of the day I feel like if I were her, I would have been absolutely terrified to be back on that court. Uh, so I can’t necessarily say I, uh, am surprised about the performance from her in particular today. But, uh, Mo’Nique made up for any like Lexi lacklusterness that there was on this Friday evening, I would say, especially on the defensive end. like Mon’nique wasn’t any less than what she normally is, which coming back from the concussion, like I feel like we can all celebrate that at least. Mhm. For sure. Uh I will also say too, I asked Native about this post game. Um I still don’t know if I have the updated numbers as I’m double checking now. Um okay, so New York switched 20% of the ball screen actions that the Mercury ran. Uh I would have to go to another tab to look at the handoff numbers, but 20% that’s a high number considering uh if you look at it on a leaguewide stretch for this season, 20 would be like top three in terms of switch rate. New York in their second game against the Mercury um on June 27th switched 30% of the screening actions. And that’s that’s an astronomical number. That 30% number I’m looking at though, the three teams that have switched the most against the Mercury this season, Golden State Valkyries, um, Minnesota Links, New York Liberty. There’s a trend there. More teams are going to figure out whether they have the personnel for it or not is another question because you can’t get away with the things that Minnesota and New York do defensively, but and Golden State by the same measure. that you see something working for someone else, they’re going to at least try it until their process is more sharp, more snappy, they’re going to kind of be succumb to some kind of um inconsistent results over the course of games. Um but that’s a great challenge and that’s one of the things that I’m looking forward to over this u back half stretch of the regular season. Well, I think honestly like to your point, if teams are going to start defending Phoenix differently, like it is a read and react offense. So, they are equipped to handle that. And that sounds like from what Nate was mentioning when I asked him about that in postgame, execution is the word that he used without getting into too fine of details, but it definitely feels like they left food on the table in terms of their game process knowing what they knew coming in. He mentioned to me impulse game that they anticipated because of the switching uptick that they saw in the second game against New York that they would do that and they took it to another degree today in terms of matchups in addition to the switching. So yeah, to your point, yes. Last thing I want to talk about is the schedule. And actually, I think this is interesting because I I saw a stat the other day and I’m pretty sure the Mercury have the fourth easiest schedule uh remaining of the WNBA right now. But that does not take into account like the timing of the games. So back to backs or anything like that are not really measured. It’s just based off of how many like times you have to play the top teams in a league. Mercury have already played now the Liberty three times, also the Lynx three times. They’ve played the Storm twice. They’ve played the Aces twice. Um Atlanta only once, but they got the remaining one that they have to take on for multiple games of the regular season. Um and I guess with Atlanta, I do think that Mercury are going to be able to figure out how to beat them. Uh I I wasn’t Wednesday’s game didn’t make me think that like Atlanta was just gonna sweep the Mercury for the season. Um but is there anything in particular that they’re you’re looking for the Mercury to make big changes for to finish out the remaining what is it 19 games now? 21 games something like that. Not necessarily changes for them. It’s more so just execution and cleaning up and just obviously reintegrating the entire team. Comfortability with what’s already there. Correct. Not just nine of 13 or 10 of 13, but having a whole roster available and everything that comes with that in terms of building out lineups. Um, integrating Delana into a full roster, full rotation, that’s different as well. Um, I think there are going to be some minute hits that take place. Some players, and I think if anything, we’ve learned that everything is competition based with this Phoenix Mercury team, and that goes back to the tone that Nate set last season. take a the comprehensive talent this roster has compared to last season. I think this roster has more talent. I think that’s fair to say. It’s going to be based off of your performance at this point. So, you talk about Kit Locka, he mentioned postgame that the good thing about the W is that there are still significantly a lot of games to kind of regain your rhythm with. You won’t be because of opportunity that you don’t get another chance. So, it’s what you do with that that’s ultimately going to be applied to what the rotation is in that final two weeks of the regular season going into the playoffs in September. Um, so I think I would keep an eye on that part, what rotations and what the lineups are looking like, how players are playing that are on the cusp of being in that top eight or nine cuz I imagine he goes with eight or nine players. Um, and then the other big thing for me is Mon’nique Makani. She is this team’s Xactor for multiple reasons. And I feel like today was a game where and I’m not putting too much on her because this is literally her first game coming back from a concussion and I’ve never had one. So I can’t speak to what it feels like coming back from one and if there’s any kind of I can’t imagine it is Ellie is in there singing Lady Gaga and Monique McConny’s trying to hit mid-range jumpers. Exactly. Exactly. But to that point though, because she’s their X factor, just paying close attention to how different teams decide to guard her because she’s a player that has significant skill that punches way out of the role that she’s playing for the Phoenix Mercury. I believe that Mon’nique could be a top three option on a a contending WNBA team. I think her skills suggest that, but she’s playing specific roles for this team to make the team work. She doesn’t need to be Alyssa Thomas because they have an Alyssa Thomas. She also doesn’t need to be Kalia Copper because they have an Kalia Copper. Also can’t be Asatu because there’s a Satu. So being a team player playing a specific role when she is forced to kind of play out of that role because of the ways teams are defending them or talking about switches. If teams are switching more and she’s going to get paint touches because no different than Kalia and Satu, she can just get past her matchup whenever she wants and Alyssa for that matter. if she’s getting paint touches off her own will and she’s kicking it out to Dana Bonner who I talked about was five of seven from the corners coming into today’s game. Kalia Ka’s been shooting close to 40% from deep in the few games that she has played and Satu hasn’t been shooting the best but on catch and shoots she’s been okay this season. So if she’s kicking out to those players and it’s not those three players having to create for themselves it’s different especially for a defense. So they need her to be to a certain level. not putting much on her because she was in her first game back, but the ways that she stepped up in the first half and even in the third quarter a little bit. Definitely, you can kind of see their avenues to winning games. I can see her having some real fun in Washington on Sunday. Listen, like I like I mentioned going into the playoffs last year. She’s not the exact same type of player that Natasha Cloud is, but no different than last season. Everybody’s going to be paying attention to the big three. Last season it was D, DT, obviously Kita, and BG. this season is Ka, Satu, and AT. All attention is going to be on those three. She’s in a similar role than Natasha Cloud was last season where not be surprised if she’s having a blast on the court come playoff time because teams are going to say, “You’re going to get one-on-one and you’re going to get soft coverages and if if you’re going to knock down seven of 14 across an entire series from the mid-range and we lose because you’re just knocking down shots and getting to the free throw line and to the rim, so be it.” I think there’s going to be that situation difference is because that’s literally what Natasha Cloud did against Minnesota. I think she had 20 or 30 in both of those games. I believe 32 in the second game. Lost her absolute mind. Mon’nique is certainly capable of doing exactly that. The difference is the team comprehensively is better this season generally and especially on the defensive end than that team was of last season. So, it’s going to hit different. The last thing I want to talk about before we get out of here is I know a lot of people have been talking about Dana Bonner and the addition that she is to the team and all true things everybody. Uh but I want to bring up a piece of this that I feel like no one’s really talking about and like obviously her and at have a lot of chemistry on the court together. They played together a long time in Connecticut. They won a lot of games together in Connecticut. But at herself talked about what a different team this is than she had in Connecticut. And what have the Phoenix Mercury done to help at out? Surrounded her with shooters. And so, yes, while they do have a ton. Oh my gosh. Of onc court chemistry. Is that okay? Did it break? No, we good. That was my little case. Thank gosh. I thought it was your whole laptop. I was like, bro, I blame Kevin. Yeah, I blame him. What? Huffing and puffing and you three little piggies over here, huh? I’ll huff and I’ll puff. That’s enough of that. Uhhuh. Oh man, that was tough. But yes, you you were cooking. Yes. Yes. Um Dana Bonner and at their dynamic has just changed a lot on the court together as they move into Phoenix and both find themselves in this Nate Tibbit system. And so I just want to get I I want everybody to give them time because while I think it’s looked great together, as Kalia, you know, makes her full return, as Sawu comes and makes her full return in the time in minutes, like everybody’s dynamic is going to change together, and that includes those two. You know, we saw in their first two games, we saw like what, six lob passes from 18 to Dana Bonner, and we haven’t seen that many of them since then, I think, in all their games combined. So, I just think you guys all need to remember that there’s context to all of these things and as time progresses, all of these dynamics are going to improve and you’ve seen it in real time happen with the big three, but as you know, Dana Bonner makes her, you know, cements her timing and position in the rotation. Uh, you’re just going to see it more and more with everybody else. Yeah, that’s it. They need they just need time with the team being fully intact to build their build their chemistry back up. And um there was something else I was going to say in my laptop case falling off just threw me all the way off cuz I was like, “What is going on down here?” Um but yes, this this team is I I have no worries. Mr. Huff and Puff back there. What is going on down there? No worries about this team and where where they’re headed. I think these lessons to learn um which is what I was going to get to before that happened. Patience, patience, patience, patience. I think I preached that coming into the season. Um because and naturally what did they do? Said forget the patience. We going to hit the ground running. We’re going to make Erica think we’re going to be undefeated and blah blah blah blah blah have a blast. Correct. Yeah. And so I think the patience part kind of got lost because they got out to such a hot start and they were hot start and they were significantly ahead of schedule in terms of their win loss record. um and kind of the expectation for the team. I think now there’s this is a moment where I’m not gonna say there’s regression, but there’s them kind of just finding a way to get back into that rhythm. Well, and I think to your point, like a lot of people did pick this team to not go to the playoffs. So, as and I’m not going to say that, you know, the other teams coaching staffs are as, you know, stupid as some media members, but that said, you know, you do scout certain teams certain ways based off of where they’re picked to kind of finish. And, you know, so if you are counting out the Phoenix Mercury at the beginning of the season and then suddenly they go on this crazy hot streak where no one really saw it coming, obviously that’s going to look a lot different. How you’re scouting them and how you’re expecting to play them is going to look a lot different this late in the season. I’ll say I think you’re on to something. I’mma tweak it a little bit though because I don’t believe that coaches are ever gonna I was close not be game plan appropriately for Alyssa Thomas. No, that’s what I’m saying. I’m like I don’t think these coaches are that stupid. But to your but to your point, it’s not not I wouldn’t say stupid. I would say it’s it’s just not knowing because there’s unknowns that come with Cat West. There’s unknowns that come with Kit Locker. There’s unknowns that come with Lexi Hill, Monique Cole Makani. Like there’s just unknowns that come with these players. And this is why I spoke to Mon’nique being the X-factor early in the season because it was clear that she has a lot of talent that exceeds what her role is for this team. What do teams ultimately decide to do? Because early in the season, she was shooting 50% from three. Teams kind of kept leaving her open. Now they have they haven’t been keeping her as open as she was early in the season, but there’s been other things that have shifted. So there’s just a lot of learning going on like across the entire league. Tisa’s still trying to figure out what to do with Cat Westb. And when she’s knocking down her threes, the keep her open option just kills you as at a certain point cuz she knocks down three or four of them. So well, how many different starting lineups has the Phoenix Mercury had to go go with? And how do you game plan for that? You know, when you don’t even know who you’re going to end up playing. So it’s just been a lot of learning for everybody surrounding the Phoenix Mercury. So I’m still super optimistic. I think this is a not only a a fantastic playoffs team, but I think they’re going to host and round on one of the playoffs. I’m going to book it now. I think they have multiple all WNBA first team players on their team right now. Multiple second team as well if we’re talking, you know, seriously about this team. But, you know, I just I don’t think my expectations have dropped at all in through this three-game losing streak. I think in that last game, I want to say it was versus the Valkyries right before the All-Star break. I could be totally wrong about that. So if I am, don’t shoot me. But um I I wasn’t really disappointed in it because you know you’re Satu sitting out with injury. Kalia is doing what Kala’s been doing. At also was coming off of injury. Like I just haven’t felt frustrated until the second half of today’s game. I had actually really not been frustrated truthfully by this Phoenix Mercury team too much this season. But when you do score 13 points in the third quarter, that is definitely something that makes your head start to hurt a little bit. Last last thing I’ll just say is when you have a team that’s playing ahead of expectation in terms of the patience part that I preached early in the season and then they get out the gates and they they get out the gates like Shakar Shakaryi Richardson. Honestly, I expected it to be like a slight jog and then they just turned into one of the fastest in the world off the rip. Speaking of huffing and puffing, What you this man what you do is you give yourself a cushion to work with. So you give yourself room for error. If you win games that you might not quote unquote you might necessarily aren’t supposed to win early in the season. Now you give yourself cushion. That’s why you have to play the schedule the right way and get off to a hot start because you never know what’s going to happen with injuries, which we’ve literally seen happen to this team. You never know what’s going to happen with the logistics as far as um the way the schedule is set up and how that’s going to implicate for your team with you got crazy road trips and things like that. So, they’re still in a patience point for me. They’ll be in a patience point until mid August probably at the earliest. And um they’ve given themselves cushion to lose games like this cuz they wouldn’t won a game against the Minnesota Links without having twothirds of their first two against Liberty. So, they went won two games against the New York Liberty. one of which that was on the the second the second night of a road back to back coming from Connecticut. You build yourself cushion because you did your work early. So this learning portion can come with some losses as long as they learn those lessons and they apply them soon. Cavo, my guy, do you have our takeover graphic by any chance in a gazillion years? That answer is probably not. But that’s okay cuz August 22nd you can join Stephen and myself at PHX Arena. We’re going to be going to watch the not the New York Liberty at all. Not the New York Liberty, the Phoenix Mercury take on the Golden State Valkyries. I’m super excited. We had two takeovers last season. Steven flew in from Chicago for the first one. It was a dope time. Okay, you get drink tickets, free food, you get to hang out with us, plus all the die hards. And I’m going to be honest with you, and I’ve said it in every show since the beginning of the season, but the Mercury really does have the best dieards in all of PHNX. You can really even ask Kevo. You know, he has There’s other people that are saying that too. Yeah, for sure. It’s it’s word is getting around the office for sure. Y’all y’all are some true ride or dies. Ride or die hards. Y’all are really the goats of the chat every time. Whether it’s a die hard Discord chat, this chat, the Twitter chatters, all of y’all really are the best in the business, but we only have a certain amount of tickets. So, if you want to go, I’m telling you right now, you better get your tickets quickly because again, our dieards, they’re die hard and they’re going to show up and show out for us. So, be there. be square. Um, you can wear some really cool Mercury gear, maybe some PHX Mercury gear, and we can have a really fun time together. It’s going to be a blast. I’m not even questioning if it’s going to be fun because I know for a freaking fact it’s going to be fun. I’m bringing thunder sticks. How could it be unfun if I’m bringing thunder sticks? Um, but then also one other thing is you got to become a diehard because we are having a is it spring training or fall? Fall spring. No, it’s camp. Just camp. It’s just camp. training camp. Okay. I thought it was fall camp. So, training camp. I’m wrong cuz it’s July for the Cardinals. Uh yeah. Camp sale $36 on the year. You get you you you can become a die hard and you can be just like us. You can be like all these cool chatters. I know Andy Bryant is a die hard. Joel Pretty’s die hard. Christina Pretty. I saw her in the chat. Lindsay’s even a diehard. She joined us I think less than a month ago. So, we got new fresh Mercury dieards and you could be just like them for only $36 a year. You get a free t-shirt of your choosing out of the locker or a hat. I hear through the grapevine their PHX hats are pretty cool. I don’t really wear hats, but I’m sure they’re good. They are sweet. Um, and then you get a super cool membership card. I’m actually kind of jealous of the people with membership cards cuz I don’t have one. And that it don’t seem right to me personally. Uh, but you get discounts on these on cool events such as literally this one that I just finished talking about, the Die Hard Takeover. Um, and then also obviously all the other cool events that we do like, uh, I think there’s pickle ball events going on. I know Cardinals are doing a ton of cool events. Pickle ball event taking place tomorrow morning. Actually, 10 a.m. at the chicken and pickle. Where is I’ll be pulling up too? I’m going to be honest with y’all. I will not be at the chicken. Where does Kevo might be pulling up too? Yes, I’m holding him accountable, putting him on the spot now. Oh, now all of a sudden you got to clear his throat. I got some fleg. I’ll come back from there. Now y’all sick, huh? Uhhuh. But yeah, you can become a diehard just like everybody else in the chat. All you got to do is go to that first link in the uh description box below. Uh gophnx.com/diehard. I’d imagine also works. Uh because that, you know, PHX likes to make things super freaking easy for you. So go to those links, become a diehard, get your t-shirt, join the Diehard Discord lounge where we have a ton of fun on a literal daily basis. You want to see me crashing out about fantasy basketball? That’s literally the only place in Northwest uh America that you can do it. So uh join the die hards and uh what what is so funny over there? Southwest North America. Northwest America. I think it’s the only place in America, but also we are in the Southwest, but that’s neither here nor there. Oh, it’s okay. Uh like I said guys, I’m rocking I’m knocking off some rust. Okay, me and Mon kind give us a little just cut some slack. Okay, throw Lexi Held in there, too. Okay, nonetheless though, uh, thank you for joining us on this fine fine Friday evening that we didn’t really plan in the first place. So, surprise surprise. Thank you for joining us. Please be sure to tap the subscri subscribe button below, hit the like button, follow Stephen on Twitter, StephenPG3, follow me, Eric Lee Day, and you can follow us both together at phnx_cury where we just crank out the best Mercury content and also Northwest America. Uh, literally, you cannot go wrong. I’m not going to lie. We tweeted out a really good uh office meme for um AT’s MVP candidacy today. It’s already doing good numbers, but you guys, you got to go tap in with that. So, we’re spreading the good good gospel about the AT for MVP hashtag. So, tap in with us over there and we will see you guys on Monday. [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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The New York Liberty and Phoenix Mercury were inseparable in the first half, knotted at 46–46, but the Liberty outplayed the Mercury in the second half to claim a decisive 89-76 victory. Sabrina Ionescu took control with 29 points (11-21 FG), while Alyssa Thomas led Phoenix with 20 points, 13 rebounds, and 8 assists. New York’s defense and free‑throw dominance (21-for-22 from the stripe) were the difference-makers down the stretch.
Join Erika Day and Stephen Pridgeon-Garner on the PHNX Mercury Podcast Postgame Show!
0:00 – Reaction to messy loss in New York
3:00 – One Word Burn
7:35 – Alyssa Thomas getting respect!
10:30 – Reaction to post-game presser
12:30 – Kathryn Westbeld’s illness
14:00 – Kalani Brown’s DNP
18:00 – Kitija Laksa
21:00 – Managing the missing pieces
24:00 – Satou Sabally struggled
34:00 – By the Numbers
42:00 – Kahleah Copper’s minutes
46:00 – SPG’s keys
49:00 – Mercury vs Mystics
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4 comments
The past two games have been so frustrating and puzzling. Who they’ve been in those games compared to the first half of the season is very different. I hate to say it, but ever since the roster changes, the on-court dynamics and momentum has suffered. I was afraid of this very thing happening. To be clear, this is not one player’s fault. But this was a risk that I didn’t think they should have taken. Now the minutes distribution is all messed up, spacing is off, and no one (except AT) can find a rhythm which majorly affects everyone’s shooting percentage. Once the front office decided to make the roster changes, there was no going back and it’s so disappointing because this team absolutely had reasonable championship aspirations before that decision. I think, unfortunately, this is a harbinger of things to come and it was completely preventable by not changing with was working.
This team lost that dog in em. They look lost on defense way too often and our bench and even our stars are not hitting shots. They have a mental block on or something. This isnt good at all. And the NY coach made adjustments second half, Nate didnt make any adjustments, and I think thats a weak point with his coaching
And wth is wrong with Satou man? She's so inconsistent and it hurts us bad when shes off, she was horrible
And what happened to Kitija Laksa, she's in the coldest shooting slump I've ever seen. She was shooting 44 % from three. Now shes shooting almost below 30 %